the joy and brutality of map control combined with the machinations and scheming of worker placement. Absolutely brilliant game, the longest game I've played where I was ALWAYS focused on what was happening on the board. If you think worker placement is a boring, over-used mechanic or if you just want an original, brilliant game filled with player interaction and some of the deepest strategy around, this game is for you. Can't recommend it highly enough.Was this comment helpful?
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2. Fenix on 4/13/2014, said:

I have the 3rd printing for a while and I'm planning to buy this awesome game again to get all the components fresh, but on the 4th it looks like the art has reverted back, that's unfortunate... but I'll save to buy the game and the upgrade kit if I have to. It's worth it if you really like this kind of game.Was this comment helpful?
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3. Adam on 2/6/2014, said:

Heavy as anything, and cutthroat. Fun, though.Was this comment helpful?
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4. Jorge Antonio on 10/1/2012, said:

Simply awesome!Was this comment helpful?
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"P500 - Shipped August 31 - Now OUT OF STOCK"
I think this is the first time I see this in a game, "Out of Stock" in just 2'5 months. If I'm not wrong, Twilight Struggle was sold out in much more time.
This is a Great-Great Game.Was this comment helpful?
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7. Bob on 11/16/2010, said:

Had a chance to play this game a couple of times last weekend, and it really is a great addition to the GMT line of games. This is a beefy Euro, with "worker" (ok, species) placement, resource management, area control and even a little combat mechanic all wrapped into one very engrossing and challenging game. It is a long game, and I wouldn't recommend it with more than 4 (6 player is REALLY long), but it is a great game that I look forward to playing more of.Was this comment helpful?
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8. Curt on 10/21/2010, said:

I'm not a typical GMT customer, although I do own a few of their other Euros. This game blew me away and vastly exceeded my expectations. Yes, it is a long game by Euro standards. Probably slightly longer than Le Havre, Through The Ages, etc. About on par with Die Macher. This feels like a breath of fresh air in the Euro world, where so many games are becoming multiplayer solitaire, or even collective solitaire! (AKA co-ops) This game is not like that. This game has teeth! It has conflict. But as a multiplayer game, you still need to focus mostly on yourself than than bashing someone else (not a zero-sum among two players relative to the others). This is a worker placement game. One of the interesting twists is that you don't carry out the action when you place your worker, but all actions are resolved after the workers are placed. But the cool thing is that for most locations, your worker only chooses the type of thing he's do, not exactly what he'll do, so there's a two-phase decision process: first to place your worker, and then later to actually resolve him and decide exactly what he does. There's also a rbilliant "flow" to how workers get resolved going from a macro to micro level of impact on the state of the world. It is also an area control game, but the new twist here is that rather than having a single dimension of control, it's two dimensional: 1) How many units exist influences scoring, but another dimension (hard to describe briefly, but it's how well your animal adapts to that location) determines who gets the "bonus" when (IF!) that location is scored. That bonus is the ability to choose a card that does interesting "stuff", sort of like the El Grande cards, but with a little more oompf. So much to say. So much to love.Was this comment helpful?
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9. Aaron on 10/19/2010, said:

I'd really rather give this game 4.5 stars. I like it a lot. My only complaint is that the game is a bit long. I have played it twice now and even the second game ran somewhat over 4 hours and I don't see it getting much shorter than that. I'd have given it a full five stars if it ran 3-3.5 hours.Was this comment helpful?
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10. Thomas on 9/18/2010, said:

This is one of the best written rulebooks I have ever read. The game is deep, play is tight, and there are plenty of choices to make that help you conqueror the competition. This game should be a BGG top 20!Was this comment helpful?
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We have reworked all the internal component art for this new version of the game. The board, cards, and tiles all have a new look. Here are some samples:

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Game Overview:

90,000 B.C. — A great Ice Age is fast approaching. Another titanic struggle for global supremacy has unwittingly commenced between the varying animal species.

Dominant Species is a game for 2 to 6 players that abstractly recreates a tiny portion of ancient history: the ponderous encroachment of an Ice Age and what that entails for the living creatures trying to adapt to the slowly-changing Earth.

Each player will assume the role of one of six major Animal groups—Mammal, Reptile, Bird, Amphibian, Arachnid or Insect. Each begins the game in a state of natural balance with regards to one another. But that won’t last: It is indeed “survival of the fittest.”

Through wily Action Pawn placement, players will strive to become Dominant on as many different Terrain tiles as possible in order to draw beneficial Dominance Cards. Players will also want to propagate their individual Species in order to earn Victory Points for his particular Animal. Players will be aided in these endeavors via Growth, Migration and Domination actions, among others.

All of this eventually leads to the end game – the final ascent of the Ice Age – where the player with the most Victory Points will have his Animal crowned the Dominant Species.

Throughout a game of Dominant Species large hexagonal tiles are placed on the board to create an ever-expanding interpretation of Earth as it might have appeared a thousand centuries ago. These tiles represent the various terrain such as desert, mountain, forest and sea. The smaller Tundra tiles will be placed atop these larger tiles – converting them into Tundra in the process – as the Ice Age encroaches.

The cylindrical Action Pawns (or “AP”s) drive the game. Each AP will allow a player to perform the various actions that can be taken—actions such as growth, environmental change, migration, competition or glaciation. During each turn’s opening Planning Phase players will take turns placing their Available APs onto the Action Display, indicating a specific action that player wishes to perform that turn. During the following Execution Phase these APs will be removed in a prescribed order and their indicated action executed.

Generally, players will be trying to enhance their own Animals’ survivability while simultaneously trying to hinder that of their opponents’—hopefully collecting valuable victory points along the way. The various cards will aid in these efforts, giving players useful one-time abilities or an opportunity for recurring victory point gains.

Throughout the game Species – represented by colored wooden cubes – will be added to, moved about in, and removed from the terrain tiles in play (the “Earth”). Element markers will be added to and removed from both Animals (“need”) and Earth (“supply”).

When the “Ice Age” card triggers the end of the game, players will conduct a final scoring of each tile—after which the player controlling the Animal with the highest VP total wins the game.